3 allegedly made bomb threats at airports

Airport officials said operations at the Miami International Airport returned to normal Monday after a security scare the day before shut down Terminal E for several hours after a passenger said a bomb was in his luggage, The Miami Herald reported.

"He was on his way to Mexico City where he was supposed to connect to another plane," airport spokeswoman Maria Levrant said. "The airport bomb squad was on the scene and quartered off the terminal."

The Herald didn't indicate what prompted the man to make the threat or whether he was arrested.

At Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J., two passengers were arrested for allegedly making bomb threats in separate incidents, an official said.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Steve Coleman said the first incident occurred at Sunday morning in Terminal C of the airport.

Investigators said Eran Hess of Tel Aviv, Israel, was angry because there were no more seats on his United Airlines connecting flight to Miami even though his bag was already loaded onto the plane, and he allegedly told gate agents there was a bomb in the bag, The (Newark) Star-Ledger reported Monday.

Coleman said police arrested Hess and believe he made the alleged threat in retaliation for the airline separating him from his bag.

David Castelveter, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman, said passengers and bags were unloaded from the airplane and re-screened.

Later Sunday, Thomas Foley III of Hoboken, N.J., was arrested in Terminal C for allegedly creating a false alarm, The Star-Ledger reported.

"While he was at a checkpoint, he basically stated that there was a bomb in his shoe," Coleman said.

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